Vivaldi does not download (some) pdf's any more

Since a week I cannot download pdf's from a few professional (and "clean") webpages, which always worked before and still do on my laptop, which has the same Vivaldi, OS (Windows 7), and antivirus software (Avast).

Just a couple of minutes before Vivaldi opened the pdf in its viewer, but when I clicked at the download arrow I could select a destination directory in the Windows Explorer (I did not set Vivaldi to the default directory), but after clicking "Save" the window immediately closes. The "Downloads" list in Vivaldi then always shows the file's name with a message "0 byte of [xyz] kB - stopped". There is virtually no hint of antivirus or firewall interference. On another website (Moodle learning platform, where I am registered) not even the file is previewed, with the rest of the sequence of events similar to what I have written above.

Actually my Vivaldi 1.13.1008.36 does not download ANYTHING. I cannot even save images from websites. Their file names appear instantly in the list at 0 bytes and paused, and when I click on the pause button, it says the download is finished from the KB listed , but the "odometer" is still running at a very low bit rate, so the files do neither open, nor is anything present in the download directory. My network connction is stable and quite fast, this is not the problem. Chrome does everything that Vivaldi does't now. S .th. is wrong with Vivaldi or compromising it. Any ideas now?

The PDF you mentioned directly opens in Vivaldi.
The gray PDF page does not show up?
Did you disable the opening of PDF in Vivaldi? Einstellungen → Webseiten → Plugins
[×] Internen PDF-Betrachter aktivieren

@catweazle Well thanks, I see it too, the pdf viewer is enabled for surer. I do not see anything in Settings > Download that will change the situation. There, I always have checked the two lowermost boxes, as I want to choose my own download location all the time.

As a matter of fact NOTHING AT ALL downloads from Vivaldi here since last week, last example being a retoure label for a package.

I just cannot download anything and save it. When pressing that arrow, which you have marked in the viewer, I am directed to the explorer, where I can choose a directory to save, and when pushing on Save, I can see the file name in the left-
side download list column with the following message underneath it:

@elmaruser As ayespy and Gwen Dragon mentioned above this might indeed be related to some security software update that happened recently and/or some security software in general.
There have been a bunch of problems caused by this please list what security software do you use?
(Anitvirus, firewall, security extensions etc,)

And just to ruin the punch line - in case your answer is avast it is more than likely that this has to do something with your problem.

@catweazle Well thanks, I see it too, the pdf viewer is enabled for surer. I do not see anything in Settings > Download that will change the situation. There, I always have checked the two lowermost boxes, as I want to choose my own download location all the time.

As a matter of fact NOTHING AT ALL downloads from Vivaldi here since last week, last example being a retoure label for a package.

I just cannot download anything and save it. When pressing that arrow, which you have marked in the viewer, I am directed to the explorer, where I can choose a directory to save, and when pushing on Save, I can see the file name in the left-
side download list column with the following message underneath it:

@elmaruser The difference between Vivaldi and Chrome is that chrome is pretty much wide-spread. Everybody knows it - so does AV-Software manufacturers and they test their product if it somehow intereferes with other major software. They have absolutely no interest in loosing customers because they slow down or cripple chrome - but Vivaldi on the other hand? Sad truth is that they don't care enough - yet.

Back to your problem: To pin down if this really is avast related or not you need to deinstall avast! (trust me - disabling this and that does absolutely nothing you really need to deinstall this) but please make sure first of all that you save your customised black-/white-lists and settings and whatever else stuff there might be that gets erased by a deinstallation.

There is an estimated 90% chance that after the uninstall is done your problem is gone too. In this case you'll probably have to make a decision: still use avast or still use Vivaldi - either way it would be nice to let the guys at avast know about your problems so maybe just maybe someday they will give in and also test their software with vivaldi.
In case nothing changed and you really deinstalled avast - things will get interesting.

Oh and merry christmas to you anyway. Hope you'll open up some nice gifts today.:evergreen_tree:

@zaibon Thanks a lot and wish you a nice Christmas too (it is still on).

I use a version of Avast 17.9.2322 (build 17.9.3761.0), which is still paid for nine months, so I am reluctant to give it up, but surely will after another half a year. I heard good things about AVG. For the time being, I have to use Chrome for downloading (I am not heavily doing that). until the Avast developers do s.th. about it.

I cannot totally exclude Vivaldi from being part of the problem, however, as the stopping of downloads seems to exist since one of their updates about three weeks ago. Strangely enough, the downloads still work on my laptop, although I run Avast there too, however as freeware, so my problem seems to be version related to both Avast and/or Vivaldi (here I have 1.13.1008.40).

What is strange: my laptop uses the same AVAST 17.9.2322 (build 17.9.3761.0) and the newest Vivaldi, and handles the downloads just sweetly. So, which other blocking software or firewall might there be on my desktop? I am not aware of anything else or s.th. much different from my laptop

@elmaruser
Hi, and happy new year. Sorry for my late reply sadly I'm a bit short on spare time at the moment.
The only thing left right know that comes to my mind for your situation is to erase all possible whitelists entries for vivaldi in avast - of course make sure you remember what was whitelisted by avast itself - and re-whitelist Vivaldi again by hand. Maybe deselect in Settings --> Updates --> the option "Notify about Updates" first before you do this as this runs a process that keeps on running even when Vivaldi is turned off.

Why the free Avast version and Vivaldi don't have a problem with each other but the paid version does beats me - maybe some special heuristic stuff the paid version has but the free one doesn't but I can't tell for sure, just a guess.

EDIT: Oh and you could try to go to chrome://settings/?search=hardware and turn off Continue running background apps when Vivaldi is closed as this might also trigger some antivirus events which might result in blocking parts of Vivaldi - but as the upper suggestions this is more like a shot in the blue sky than founded knowledge.

For once, "noone can reproduce your problem" is not Boolean logic either, I would say. Also, it would have been more of a help, if you or anyone else could have hinted at why Avast does NOT block downloads in IE, Opera 12 or Firefox at all, but just in Vivaldi.

What speaks for both of you, of course, is the non-responsiveness from Avast w.r. to the problem, which I have messaged them of course, and their user forum is not really proficient either.

@elmaruser I'm not sure what you are expecting. There were some hints and recommendations what to try - especially to disable AVAST's influence by uninstalling it. This doesn't mean ditching it, but trying if Vivaldi works if Avast is definitely not interfering. At the moment there seem no other known influences, and Avast has been known to interfere, paid or not.
If you are unwilling to try - fine, but don't say you haven't been helped. Maybe you should then try to use software which has been tested more and might be taken into account by AV companies. Vivaldi needs feedback to get to a maturity level other browsers have already reached. If you aren't willing to give this feedback, then maybe the team might not be able to help you more than they have done already.
And if all this is not for you, maybe you will be happier with another browser (especially as they seem to work for you...)

[edit]ok, so you tested Avast and it is the culprit. You do understand that Vivaldi is a bit at a loss if other programs block it, yes? If "working just fine" and blocking Vivaldi is the same for you, well, that's your decision. Being a paid program doesn't go far in telling about quality...

Vivaldi Snapshot (current as soon as possible) on MacOS Sierra and High Sierra. Enough RAM.